since the launch of HD tellies and consoles prior to gen 8 only have a few games making that target

EDIT to clarify timetable

HDTV LAUNCH -------xbox360/ps3 below hd ghraphics still ------------- 4k monitors launch ------ Gen 8 --- 720p/1080p ew mah gewd

how did we survive the gens before that too?

We simply existed...

Yeah, to be fair: it's the future now. I am an Xbox One fan, but this argument holds not much water because we only had black and white, sd tvs because the alternative wasn't possible and available in most consumer homes at the time.

We also once survived without video games.

Because it isn't that bad.

True, but back then, we had Pen & Paper Roleplaying to satisfy our needs.

Almosy every gen 8 game has done 1080p... on the ps4. You're right, only severaly games have been 1080p for the xbone. As of now, BF4 is the only AAA title that isn't 1080p on the ps4. This also isn't a valide arguments. So you're telling me that it's ok if we don't make progress graphically in a console gen. That's what you're making it sound like. It's not that we can't survive without it, it's that we want a difference between console gens. 

We didn't.. look how many of us left during these last few years... they died cause they couldn't handle 720p

It was a struggle. But hey, at least it wasn't 480p like the Wii had! THAT would REALLY have sucked to play on our Standard Definition televisions back in 2006!